


call my name or walk on by

by Kirbita22



Category: Neopets
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Kimi no Na wa AU, LOOK im sorry but also im not, M/M, t for language bc cylara and parlax are pottymouths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 12:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12770856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirbita22/pseuds/Kirbita22
Summary: Every once in a while, he dreams of living in the skin of a Cybunny girl carrying on a normal life on Neopia Central; meanwhile, she dreams of a life on the moon, in the skin of a Grundo boy with a lot on his plate. But lives intertwined by dreams can have a much larger impact than either of them could have dreamed of. But maybe they should focus on the immediate issues, like if Cylara could stop meddling with his love life, and if Gorix would keep his temper in check please, she has a reputation to maintain!(or; the kimi no na wa au absolutely nobody asked for)





	1. and i would like to fly away

**Author's Note:**

> i am Sorry for this it seemed like a good idea at the time :^)
> 
> fic title from Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me, chapter title from Kero Kero Bonito - Small Town

  
Gorix opened his eyes to an unfamiliar room. After shaking himself from the daze of sleep a little, he could see, with confusion, that it was a place he didn’t remember ever being to before; there were clothes and accessories and books all over the floor and the furniture, and posters of various bands and shows lining the walls, and half-shut blinds letting sunlight in from the outside . So the opposite of Gorix’s room, really.

He sighed. He was no stranger to these dreams, in which he was living planetside, presumably adopted by a loving family, but they usually weren’t lucid dreams. Well, he reasoned, at least this meant he wouldn’t get his hopes up. The worst part of these dreams was always waking up back in his own life, up on Kreludor on the orphanage with the others.

But he soon noticed something _else_ about the dream that was unusual: when he reached to push the covers away, instead of his own hands he was greeted with two white paws. He stared at them for a long while. Well, this was new. He glanced around the room, looking for a mirror, and got up to look at his reflection (and nearly fell over- he was a lot taller than usual?). In it, he didn’t see himself, but a Cybunny girl with ginger hair and mane, white fur, and long twitching ears. She looked a bit older than him- maybe seventeen or so- and she was wearing pink pajamas with ridiculously cutesy patterns. Well… this was certainly, definitely new, and he had no idea of what to make of it.

He heard a knock at his (hers? If the Cybunny was a she, whoever it was?) door. “Are you awake already, honey? Don’t take too long dressing up, you’ll be late for school!” a voice (a mom? A caretaker of some kind?) called out from behind it.

“Ah, yes! I won’t be long!” he said, only barely caught off guard by the higher pitched voice that came out of his throat. He heard steps going away from the door, and sighed. Well. It might be a dream, but it would still probably be better of him to do what he was apparently supposed to. He grabbed the uniform hanging neatly from the closet door, screwed his eyes shut, and prayed whoever this was slept with underwear on.

  


* * *

  
  
Cylara climbed down the steps to the first floor, absentmindedly adjusting her pigtails. She made her way to the kitchen where her parents were already eating breakfast, still yawning. She shoved her way between them, dragging the toast and jam to her plate with a “g’morning”. 

“Morning, sweetie” her mom answered. Cylara noticed she was looking at her with her trademark Concerned Mom Look. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion: she was probably not getting out of the house without a Worried Mom Talk (also trademarked).

“I see you’re back to normal today!” her dad added, overly chipper, only to receive a less-discrete-than-she-probably-thought-it-was kick under the table courtesy of mom. “Uh, I mean, you’re, uh” he tried to continue speaking while mom glared daggers from across the table “uh, nevermind honey!”

Cylara, who was now equal parts confused and annoyed at her parents being weird about stuff, glared at them both. “Okay, what’s this about now?” They both seemed to suddenly find their meals and the ceiling extremely interesting. “I’m not leaving ‘till you both spill it! And I’ll be late to school!”

“Oh, nothing, sweetie, it’s just…” Her parents looked at each other with twin looks of concern, and her mom continued “You were acting a bit… different yesterday, that’s all.”

Cylara raised an eyebrow, while mentally running through all she could remember of the previous day, wondering what in the world she’d done to freak her parents out like that, and found nothing. But since the important thing right now was to calm them down… “No, I’m fine, mom! Sorry I worried you both.” She smiled, and shoved the rest of the toast down her mouth. “Anyways I’llbelatetoschoolgottagobye!” she bolted out the house before they could make any followup questions, yanking her backpack on her way out.

Making her way to school and walking along the streets of Neopia Central, Cylara tried again to think of what she’d done yesterday, but nothing stuck out to her as weird. Her ears pressed down against her head in concentration, she might have walked right past her friends if they hadn’t called out to her “Hey, Cy!”

Snapped out of her thoughts, she looked up to see Gilly and Lisha smiling at her. “Oh, hey! Quick question, what did I do weird yesterday? ‘Cause my parents are freaking out and I don’t know what about.” They stopped walking for a moment and looked at each other Like That and Cylara felt like screaming. “Stop doing that and spit it, ‘kay?”

“More like what _didn’t_ you do weird yesterday!” Gilly replied, sprinting a bit to catch up with her. “You were super quiet, you were squinting like you didn’t want to look at the sun, you didn’t recognize us, you didn’t know which way the school was…” she listed.

“Plus, you didn’t tie your hair up. It was weird. Not that it looked bad or anything, but it was extremely unusual for you!” Lisha added. Cylara groaned; her hair was an unruly mess when she didn’t tie it up in pigtails. No wonder everyone freaked out. “Why do you ask, though?”

“Because I swear to Fyora that I don’t remember even the tiniest bit of that!” she exclaimed. Her friends looked at her in disbelief. “I’m serious! I don’t remember doing any of that.”

“Maybe you were possessed!” Gilly suggested. Having been raised in the Haunted Woods, her explanations for everything were quick to turn to evil and supernatural forces- though her overactive imagination didn’t help one bit. “You definitely weren’t yourself, and if it’s not just that you’re stressed or something...”

“Why would she be possessed, though?” Lisha questioned. She was the smartest of the three, though no less likely to run with the Dumb Idea of the Day; the three of them were a teacher’s nightmare with their non existent impulse control and seemingly endless energy and ideas. “Did we do something to upset some local ghosts, or anything like that?”

Gilly shrugged, as the three of them stopped to wait for the streetlight to give them the go ahead. “Maybe… maybe your brother did, and the ghost decided to possess you as revenge, but it got confused and got Cy instead?” 

Lisha shook her head. “No, Jeran would have told me if anything like that happened. I know because I ALWAYS ask him what evil forces he’s run into lately every time he calls, and he didn’t say anything about ghosts.” Lisha’s older brother had moved to Meridell after graduating, and from what Lisha told them, was living a pretty exciting life. “I’ll ask him today anyways. But hey, wasn’t there supposed to be a vengeful ghost in the basement of the NC Mall? Maybe that’s…!”

“I didn’t get possessed, guys” Cylara cut her off, rolling her eyes. Usually she would have loved to follow an interesting adventure-sounding lead, but this one just sounded ridiculous to her for some reason. Gilly arched an eyebrow skeptically. “Look, don’t ask me how I know, but it wasn’t possession. It’s a weird feeling, like…” She scrunched her face in concentration, but to no avail. “I don’t know, but just trust me, not a ghost. Besides, it’s not like there’s any actual vengeful ghosts here.” Lisha opened her mouth to protest. “I mean actual ghosts, like on the Woods, not just urban legends!” 

She closed her mouth, and then opened it again. “Eh, fair point.” she admitted. “Still, it might be worth looking into, right?” Cylara just shrugged. 

“I don’t think so honestly. There’s nothing interesting here” she kicked a pebble in her way “in Shop Your Heart Out Central. The most interesting thing that ever happens here is a sale.” The other two seemed to want to say something, but couldn’t find a way to contradict her. “You two have been away, right? In the rest of Neopia it’s not normal for a month to go by with absolutely nothing interesting happening, is it?”

Gilly shrugged. “I mean… yeah, but the Haunted Woods are weird like that. One weekend I got lost and ended up finding a literal ghost town.” The others couldn’t even tell if she was joking or not, and with the amounts of supernatural things going on over there it was completely possible.

Lisha seemed to think for a minute, before saying “Well, the one time I went on vacations to visit Jeran we got into a whole lot of trouble. But that might just be an Us thing. Then again I did learn the barebones on using magic during it…” 

Cylara groaned. Why was she the only one who had never set foot outside of Neopia Central. “When I graduate I’m gonna fuck off somewhere… Somewhere nobody in class has gone to.” She thought for a bit. “I’ll go to the moon! Yeah! I’m gonna go to Kreludor and none of you can stop me!” she declared proudly.  


Her friends smiled and gave her a joking look of disbelief. “Sure you will, spacegirl. Hurry up, we’re gonna be late” Gilly grinned.

  


* * *

  


At class, she ignored the laughter from a few of her classmates when the teacher remarked she’d remembered her name today (she still couldn’t remember anything about that!). But the most interesting thing was when she opened her notes from the day before: they were neat and organized and with a much more legible handwriting than hers. She raised an eyebrow; did Lisha and Gilly take notes for her? It didn’t look like their handwriting either, though.

Stranger even, though, was the page immediately after that one: in the otherwise empty lined sheet, horizontally across the whole page, in impeccable handwriting, was a single phrase: 

_Who are you?_

Cylara frowned at it. Was someone pranking her somehow? She shook her head and shoved the notebook back in her notebook. She’d figure it out later, probably.


	2. spread out with a butter knife

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? uploading two chapters in a day and then probably never again? its more likely than you think
> 
> chapter title from mother mother - the stand

The next morning, Cylara was woken up by an alarm she didn’t remember setting. She vaguely swatted her hand at her nightstand looking for her phone, but she was greeted by none nightstand and left falling off the goddamn bed like an idiot.

“Wh- wha-” a voice sounded from vaguely above her, startling her to hell and back. “Oh, ouch, nice going, Gorix, wipeout first thing in the morning. You okay?”

Her first though was _why the fuck is there a guy in my room_ ; but her next thought was the observation that her hands were blue. The fuck. She glanced up at the Mystery Man and found herself staring up a bunk bed, and to the occupant of the top bunk; a split Grundo with a worrisome-looking scar crisscrossing his eyes, which were staring intensely at her. She blinked, and realized he was expecting an answer. “Uh… I’m fine.” If she wasn’t still trying to process everything and failing, she’d have been more freaked out than she was that her voice was definitely not her voice, actually.

The mystery Grundo looked relieved, though he then scoffed and threw himself back into the bed. “Okay, cool. Let me know when the bathroom’s free, ‘kay. And can you please turn that shit off, it’s driving me insane.”

Cylara looked around the room (two bunk beds, the other of which was empty though with the bottom bed unmade; tiny, with not a lot of personality, but everything in its place, at least in the lower half, the unoccupied top bunk seemed to be a rough equivalent to the mini couch in her own room, eg. everything you don’t know where to put goes in it; two doors, one presumably to the bathroom from where the sound of running water could be heard, and the other presumably to the rest of the house? or wherever this was?) until she located the phone- on the floor next to her, plugged into a very crowded electricity outlet, sharing space with like two other phones and a game console. She grabbed at the one ringing, and clicked the Shut Up Button.

For a moment she was worried it might not be her (Gorix’s? Apparently?) phone, but the others seemed very… unique: one black with a purple and orange case and red skull stickers all over, and the other matching cases with the game console, the latter of which had a stamp in very legible letters that read ‘property of conicks. DO NOT TOUCH’. 

She glanced at the remaining, formerly-screaming-at-her-to-wake-up one: it was the simplest of the three, with a boring case and not at all personalized. But when she went flipped it to snoop around in it, she nearly had a heart attack: in the reflection of the dark screen, she saw an unfamiliar face. She nearly flung it across the room, but decided against it. Instead, she turned it on (the lockscreen had apparently never been changed? Why? Who leaves the default on?!) and opened the camera app, flipping it to first person. Indeed, the camera showed not herself but a blue Grundo.

“Boy, this sure is a weird ass dream” she muttered under her breath. She heard a questioning grunt from the top bunk, which she dismissed with a casual “oh, nothing!”. This was going to be a trip, that’s for sure.

* * *

After taking a bath and getting dressed (which was unimaginably embarrassing and awkward like only dreams can be), and waiting for the other two Grundos (Conicks and the scar guy, whose name she’d have to detective out, probably) to be ready, the three of them left the room. Cylara nearly took like twenty wrong turns along the unfamiliar corridors. She tried to listen to what they were saying, but it was pretty hard when she was drinking in their surroundings.

But then they exited the corridors and got to a big living room-looking place that seemed able to accomodate like 50 people. But what really caught her attention was the huge glass wall on the side of it, that let her look outside; and oh, outside...

She had never seen such a view: the stars shone with a brightness she had never seen before, and instead of ground there was only grey rock, as far as the eye could see. And beyond that, beyond the horizon stretching infinitely forward, was Neopia, bright and luminous. It was simply breathtaking.

She stood there for a full minute (to the awkward mutual glances of Gorix’s roomates), taking in the view. Then, very quietly, she said: “I’m in space.”

Conicks blinked. “Uh, sorry, what’d you sa-”

“I’m in SPACE!” she yelled out joyously, immediately getting the attention of everyone in the room. The other two looked like they wanted the earth to swallow them. She couldn’t care less. She was in SPACE! This was the coolest dream _ever_!

* * *

There wasn’t all that much to do in space, as it turned out.

After another alarm courtesy of her (his) phone, the three of them sat down to do their homework, though the split Grundo (Parlax, the nametag on his books read) threatened to “chuck this piece of shit algebra stuff directly at Valka’s head”. Cylara had to agree: she hadn’t the faintest clue as to who in the world Valka was, but she did know math was the most useless subject on earth AND space!

Nevertheless, she scrawled something out with some help from Conicks. She may despise the subject, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do it.

“And here I thought you’d hit your head this morning or something” Parlax said. “But you’re getting through this… extremely fast, actually.”

Cylara was surprised- with how organized and timely Gorix seemed to be, she’d have expected him to be a total nerd who was Good at Math and stuff like that. “Well, aren’t I just full of surprises?” she smiled at the Grundo, who looked at her like she’d sprouted two heads.

Later even, yet another alarm (how many alarms does a guy need?!) reminded them it was time for lunch. Cylara was busy wondering what kind of food they’d have in Space when he heard a loud THUD next to her.

She glanced over to see Parlax on the floor, scrambling to get back up. “Son of a…” He looked furiously around him. And sure enough, there was an orange Grundo nearby who wasn’t even trying to hide having tripped Parlax.

What the fuck? Who did this little shit think he was? She clenched up her fists-

only to feel Conicks grasp tightly at her wrists. “Gorix, no” he whispered, “they’re not worth it.” 

This caught her off guard. She glanced back at Parlax, who was brushing dust off his clothes, still seething with anger; but to her surprise, he whispered “Don’t worry, I’ll make _sure_ he gets what’s coming to him, but getting in a fistfight isn’t going to do anything for us.” Even though he sounded casual, Cylara could tell from the intensity of the look he was giving her that he was _extremely worried_ she’d get in a fight with them.

So she sighed. “I guess you’re right. Let’s go” she said as she walked away from the snickering assholes; much to the evident bafflement of her companions, who clearly hadn’t been expecting that to work; but after a moment of stunned silence, they followed her.

They were barely out of the big living room when Parlax winced in pain. Conicks grimaced. “What’s wrong?” 

He shook his head. “Nothing, nothing. Just a scratch.” He stopped for a moment to rub at his knee- but though he tried to hide it, touching it was very clearly painful.

Cylara frowned. Gilly and her used to do a lot of dumb things like that, getting hurt and ignoring it because it’s just a scratch! It took a cut from a tree getting badly infected for Cylara to learn if it hurts, it’s probably worth at least a look.

“Come with me!” she said, taking him by the hand and running off towards their room, ignoring his yelp of protest. She traced back the path to it, miraculously getting it right and thanking the heavens for her good sense of orientation. Once they were in, she located the first aid kit (surprisingly easy to find- kudos to Organization Station over here!) and ordered: “Take your pants off.”

Parlax was getting redder by the second and spluttering something. “Oh, come on- I’ll turn around, okay? I just want to see your knee.”

He scoffed. “It’s just a scratch, nothing I can’t handle.” She looked at him in her best Oh Really face. 

“Fine, don’t take your pants off if it’s such a big deal, but roll them up or something. I just want to check you’re okay, okay?”

He stared at her for a brief moment with an odd expression before saying, in the quietest voice she’d heard from him all day, “okay.”

* * *

Everyone else had headed on to bed, but she didn’t feel like having the dream end just yet (it probably would if she slept within a dream? right?) and so she declared it to be snooping around the phone o’clock. He didn’t have many apps… in fact, he didn’t seem to have any game apps at all, in keeping with being the most boring guy on Neopia (or Kreludor, in this case). She’d have guessed it was a new phone if there weren’t a fuckton of alarms and stuff already in there. 

She decided snoop around the gallery, hoping the guy at least took selfies like a normal neopet being. She was, of course, thoroughly let down on the selfie front, but she did find a few interesting things: notes from class. The Ixi guy giving a speech. Parlax, sleeping. Parlax, awake, playing on Conick’s console, followed by Conicks swatting him away. The horizon of the moon, stretching out, with Neopia looming in the distance. Parlax, looking outside a window. More class notes. Parlax, turned away from the camera, followed by Parlax looking at the camera with an obscene gesture and a defiant grin. Parlax and Conicks, slumped against each other asleep. Parlax smiling…

She raised an eyebrow. A good chunk of these pictures seemed to have been taken in secret, especially the Parlax ones… which there were a lot of. Like, really a lot of, more than it would be logical for friends or brothers. “Oh, we’ve got a crush on our hands, don’t we?” she mumbled through a grin, low enough for the others to not hear.

She opened a note-taking app, and saw it filled with daily entries. Oh, he kept a diary? Yeah, considering this guy seemed to use his phone less as a _phone_ and more as a keep-track-of-my-shit machine, that sounded about right. Well, who was she to interrupt a lovely habit, right? Smiling, she opened a new entry.

By the time she was done, she’d grown more than a bit tired, and yawned. She was about to head to sleep when she remembered her notebook: 

_Who are you?_

Cylara didn’t have a notebook at hand, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her. She stretched as far as she could to grab a marker from a nearby shelf, uncapped it, and wrote on her (his) hand:

_Cylara._

With that done, she plugged the phone to the wall, put the cap back in the marker, and holding it tightly, finally went to sleep.


	3. taking it one step at a time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for bullying and self harm mentions! stay safe!
> 
> title from walk the moon - one foot

Gorix opened his eyes to a familiar room and a familiar alarm, but a thoroughly unfamiliar behavior: before he could even try to reach for his phone, Parlax was jumping out of bed, exclaiming “Hold on, I’ll get it.” Gorix blinked, confused, as he turned the alarm off, unplugged it, and handed it to him. “Don’t want a repeat of yesterday” he said, with a strange smile dancing across his face. This did nothing but confuse Gorix further, but Parlax was off to the bathroom to hurry Conicks up before he could ask what he meant.

Gorix had barely had time to start pondering what in the world he meant by that and if he’d done something out of the ordinary yesterday when he noticed something even stranger. In his other hand, held tightly, there was a black marker, and on the surface of his hand there was a single written word:

_Cylara._

 What.

_today (whatever day):_  
_yoooo this was an Extremely Weird dream but i think i did the most of it?? maybe? i mean boi you on the MOON how SICK is THAT!!!!_  
_anyways we did some stuff idk it was boring i was mostly admiring the view the whole day. im not good at the journaling thing i guess lmao??_  
_OH SHIT WAIT I DID DO A THING i spent som time with parlax!! hes cute……..judging by ur photo skillz gorix (that u right) im not the only one who thinks that huhhh ;)))) i think i caught him off guard with my Mad First Aid Skillz!! ask if his knees doing better_  
_anyways it was fun. i hope i get more dreams like this soon :D_

_What._

“You’re not gonna get lost today too, right?” Parlax asked him jokingly as they made their way to the main hall. Gorix’s mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour.

“Uh… no. How’s your knee, by the way?” he managed to get out, mostly to dispel any ridiculous ideas about what was probably Parlax playing a prank on him-

but Parlax avoided looking at him entirely. “Better, but I think I can take care of myself, you don’t gotta check up on every scratch I get, you know?” But Gorix could swear to the Space Faerie that there was the faintest blush in his cheeks when he added a quiet “thank you, though”.

_What????_ Had the stuff in the journal actually happened? What? _What?_

 

* * *

 

 

Cylara stared hard at the surface of her forearm, which was covered in scrawled out handwriting.

  _Are you Cylara? What are you? Why are you doing this?_

 Later, she was faced with… well, entering the classroom to find everyone staring at you is never a good sign, so Cylara scurried over to her seat as fast as she could and asked Gilly “Status update! What’d I do yesterday?!”

 

Gorix had tried to wrangle the mess of hair into a single high ponytail this time, to mixed success. He was minding his own business, doing whatever he could manage in art class (which wasn’t a lot); but the whispers and snickers that ran through the room the minute the teacher walked out were _really_ getting on his nerves: the words "freaks", "teacher's pet" and "good for nothing" flew freely around. Gorix would have been irritated even if he didn't know who they were talking to, but he had a nasty feeling in his stomach he knew exactly who the insults were directed at.

"They're talking about us, aren't they." he muttered through gritted teeth, to which a confused-looking Gilly nodded, and went back to coloring her painting with an unnecessary amount of force. Lisha just stared at her work dejectedly, desperately trying to pretend she didn’t care.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm down. _Nothing good will come out of a fight. Plus, you don’t need any extra attention to yourself. Sticks and stones, and all they say…_

“Hey, Beth!” an obnoxiously loud voice cut through his thoughts “, between the three freakazoids, who do you bet cuts herself the most?”

Oh, that was IT.

He abruptly stood up, ignoring the surprise in Cylara’s friend’s voices, nearly toppling over the table, and made his way to the other side of the room, where the laughter was coming from, and planted himself firmly in front of them. The chatter immediately died down, and the Kyrii who last spoke turned to look at her, blood draining from her face.

“Excuse me” he said, cracking his knuckles and thanking the Space Faerie that Cylara was of a suitably intimidating height, “do you have a _goddamn problem_?”

 

“WHAT?!” Cylara exclaimed, mortified. Sure, she’d always _wanted_ to do something like that, but it was an A+ way of getting suspended and worrying her parents sick. What in the world had driven her to do that? And why didn’t she remember it?!

 

* * *

 

_\- Cylara Bunn (? Is that a real last name?)_  
_\- Good relationship with parents (haven't found out names or occupations yet. Note: share what happened in the day or they'll worry, but don't overshare either!)_  
_\- Lives in Neopia Central (i might have to get sunglasses.)_  
_Two best friends:_  
_\- Gilly (haven't found out last name; Usul; energetic. Is convinced Cylara's possessed. Note: is she? Am I possessing her?)_  
_\- Lisha Borodere (Aisha; nice, quick-thinking; family member lives in Meridell; can do magic apparently?)_  
_\- Classes are EXTREMELY HARD! People will notice something's wrong if I act like I don't know shit during class but seem to find it normal if I refuse to work whatsoever the whole class?_  
_\- a whole lot of assholes in class, but she usually doesn't stand up to them. (Note: Like I care, they insult these three perfectly innocent girls one more time and they can meet me in the pit.)_  
_WHAT'S GOING ON: ??_

 Cylara stared at her notebook like it had spontaneously combusted. In the pages at the back of it, there were neatly written notes she definitely hadn't taken.

 

* * *

 

_okay im gonna keep forgetting shit if i dont write it down so_  
_GORIX: my name. apparently acts like an organized smart guy all the time but also has no impulse control which is fine by me!!! i can b myself ;^)_  
_PARLAX: roomate 1. edgy as all shit but pretty nice also. GORIX HAS A CRUSH ON HIM!! find out more abt what he feels in return!!!_  
_CONICKS: roomate 2. v nice and also v smart!!! he can do some cool hacker shit i guess which is sweet. ALSO HE KICKS MY ASS AT SSB WHAT IS THISSSS_  
_VALKA: ??? havent SEEN him yet but parlax seems to dislike the guy. i suspect its the green ixi dude from the photos_  
_i think this is an orphanage, but on the moon??? HELLA SWEET_  
_note: okay maybe not as sweet i googled it (incognito) and this is probably an orphanage comprised of the survivors from sloths takeover from some years ago. oof thats rough_  
_But still: SPACE!!!!!_

Gorix stared dumbfounded at the notes in his phone. He’d been trying his damnedest to find another explanation, because this was too outlandish to be true, but… “When we… when we dream...”

“No way” she said, her voice shaking. “It can’t be. When we dream…”

“That girl and I…”

“That guy and I…”

“Really are switching bodies?!”

 

* * *

 

So here’s what she’s got so far: Gorix is a Grundo about her age, who lives in an orphanage in Kreludor.

He switches with Cylara on seemingly random days, upwards of once a week, though usually no more than four times a week. The switches seemed to be triggered by sleep, but he had no idea of what might cause them.

After waking up, they had no memories whatsoever of anything they did during the switched day,

but the people around them definitely did, and reacted accordingly. With that in mind,

they started setting up some hard rules for whenever the switches happened, to keep SOME semblance of normalcy in their lives.

  
_DON’T BE A CREEP!!! no baths allowed! and avoid going to the bathroom unless u absolutely have to!!_  
_the uniforms a SKIRT dumbass DONT SIT SPREAD LEGGED!!!_  
_ignore the bullies, please!! i know it sucks, but the teachers are starting to get worried and if they call my parents about it i don’t even know what im gonna tell them!!_  
_stop being weird about the sun you’re not a goddamn vampire!!_

 

_\- No slang and no cursing! I don’t speak like an old man either but you use so much of both it’s extremely noticeable._  
_\- Keep my space clean, please, it costs zero effort to put dirty clothes in the clothes basket._  
_\- Stay out of my love life! Who I do and don’t have a “crush” on is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS._  
_\- Respect Mr. Valka. You haven’t met him yet but I can already tell you’re probably gonna do something stupid so: please don’t._

 

They also had something of an implicit agreement to keep journals of their days during the switch in each other’s phones. But reading her journals, well…

As she read the entries, a single thought ran through her head:

 

“What is WRONG with this person?!”

 

_Hey, could you do me a favor and STOP being so good at math? I’m no good at math but now the tutor calls me up to explain to the class, because I got the homework perfect? I nearly died!_

_I’ll stop being good at math when YOU stop being good at sports! WHAT DID YOU EVEN DO! The coach is trying to get me on the athletics team?! I can’t do a cartwheel without falling over, what am I supposed to tell him!_

_Stop challenging Conicks at games! He’ll eventually realize you’re much better at it than I am!_

_Hey quick question what the FUCK did you do to Beth?! She starts crying every time she sees me!_

_STOP FLIRTING WITH PARLAX!!! We’re just friends, okay?! He’s being weird with me now and I don’t know how to deal with it!_

_It’s not my fault I’m so good at the romance thing ;^) though speaking of which can you explain to me why like three people handed me love letters today this is getting out of hand_

_People like assertive girls? I don’t know, I certainly didn’t TRY for that, because unlike SOME people I at least TRY to keep my nose out of other people’s love lives!_

 

Gorix would like to think he was more or less getting a grasp of things; going on after school adventures with Gilly and Lisha was fun, he wouldn’t deny that, as was the slow turnaround of the classroom from despising Cylara to her suddenly being the most popular girl in school. That was a good thing, right? He was also getting better at tying her hair back into a decent-looking ponytail, which was good for keeping it out of his face when he was doing sick flips on sports class (though he still slipped up on the “remember you’re wearing a skirt” front from time to time).

Spending time with Parlax was super fun! Her favorite pastime was investigating how much of a crush the guy had on Gorix (which was a lot) and taking advantage of it. She also started looking into what exactly his relationship to Mr. Valka (who she found out was indeed the Ixi guy and also the institution’s director or something) was, since he seemed to be closer to the trio than to the other kids, but also Parlax seemed to hate him. She was also making progress on the SSB championships, much to Conick’s amazement.

“Stop that!” he wrote in her forearm.

“You first!” she replied on his legs.

“I did nothing wrong!” he wrote right on her forehead.

“Me neither!” she scrawls across his cheeks.

“How about you stop messing my life up?! Things are spiraling out of control! And I haven’t accepted any confessions because I’m considerate with you, maybe try that some day!” his fingers flew across her phone.

“I wasn’t the one who started it! And have you considered I’m single ‘cause i wanna be?!” she replies, tapping away furiously.

“Yeah? Well me too!”

“Oh, really!”

“Yeah, really!”

“Sure, Mr. 50 photos of my roommate sleeping!”

“I HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR THOSE OKAY!”


End file.
